Assignment topic: wide Sargasso sea summary

Subject: Women literature

Submitted by: Rida
BS English 8th semester
Roll no: 16001
Submitted to: ma’am Iqra Nazish

Introduction:
Jean Rhys
Jean Rhys, original name Ella Gwendolen Rees Williams, (born August 24,
1890, Roseau, Dominica, Windward Islands, West Indies—died May 14, 1979.
Wide Sargasso Sea is a 1966 novel by Dominica-born British author Jean Rhys. It is a feminist
and anti-colonial response to Charlotte Brontë's novel Jane Eyre (1847)
Summary
The novel opens with Antoinette’s narration, looking back at her childhood in 1830’s post-
Emancipation Jamaica. Antoinette and her family are isolated, socially and geographically.
Antoinette explains that their exclusion from white society is a result of disapproval by “the
Jamaican ladies” of her mother Annette’s youth, physical beauty, and origins from Martinique.
When Antoinette asks her mother why they have so few visitors to Coulibri, their estate, her
mother tells her that it is because of the poor condition of the road leading from the nearest town,
and that “road repairing was now a thing of the past.” Antoinette laments the loss of her father,
of regular visitors, of feeling safe in her home, as all things that now belong to the
past.Antoinette overhears her mother one day speaking to Mr. Luttrell, a white neighbor
and Annette’s only friend. He laments the delayed arrival of the financial compensation that
white former slaveowners such as himself were promised as part of the Emancipation Act of
1833. Not long after, Mr. Luttrell, “tired of waiting,” commits suicide. His property is left
abandoned, pronounced unlucky by local whites and considered by the black population to be
haunted. Annette is left completely friendless after Mr. Luttrell’s death, and the Cosway’s are
now the only white people in the immediate area. Now when Annette travels around the area she
is alone, and the family’s black neighbors often gather to jeer at Annette as she rides by,
particularly at the increasing shabbiness of her appearance. One day, Antoinette finds her
mother’s horse dead underneath a tree, and tells no one, because she believes if she doesn’t speak
of it, it might turn out not to have happened. When the horse is discovered later by their servant
and former slave, Godfrey, it is clear that it has been poisoned by their black neighbors.
While Godfrey maintains a kind of detached moral stance, (“The Lord make no distinction
between black and white”), Annette angrily holds him responsible and places him on the side of
their hostile neighbors, saying, “The old hypocrite...He knew what they were going to do.”
Without the horse to travel, Annette pronounces the family “marooned.” A doctor comes to pay a
visit to Antoinette’s younger brother, Pierre, who is disabled. Antoinette is never told what the
doctor says during this visit-- she knows only that afterward her mother descends into a
depression, and refuses to leave the house. Annette instructs Antoinette repeatedly to leave her
alone, and begins to talk to herself, which frightens Antoinette. When Annette does stand outside
of the house , to look at the sea, she is gawked at by passersby. Antoinette describes how
the gardens at Coulibri during this time are allowed to grow beautiful and wild from neglect,
without anyone to work on them now that slavery has ended. She remarks on the smell of dead
flowers mixed in with the fragrance of living ones. To avoid her mother, Antoinette begins to
spend most of her time with her nurse Christophine. Christophine is also from Martinique, and
therefore just as isolated in the black community as Annette and Antoinette are among white
society. Antoinette describes her distinctly Martinique songs and attire. She also observes that
the girl servants who help Christophine with the washing are afraid of her, and that it is this fear
that keeps them working for her. She doesn’t pay them, and they even bring her presents of fruit
and vegetables. When Antoinette asks her mother about Christophine, it is clear that she is the
only servant that Annette still trusts. Annette believes all the others have stayed at Coulibri only
“because they wanted somewhere to sleep and something to eat,” and angrily denounces them.
Antoinette offers to fan her mother in the heat after this angry outburst, but Annette again shuts
her out and tells her to leave. Antoinette reflects on times when she was allowed to remain close
to her mother almost constantly, and remembers in particular a feeling of safety and comfort
while watching her mother comb her hair. One day, Antoinette is followed down the road by a
little black girl singing, "White cockroach, go away, go away. Nobody want you." Antoinette
hides in the garden, where Christophine finds her many hours later, lying on the ground covered
in moss. The next day, Christophine introduces Antoinette to Tia, the daughter of Christophine’s
only friend, another non-Jamaican black woman. Tia and Antoinette become good friends for a
time, until one day they get into an argument over a bet. Christophine has given Antoinette some
pennies as spending money, and Tia bets Antoinette three pennies that she cannot do a
somersault under water. Antoinette ups the ante to all of the pennies, and when she does the
somersault there is a dispute over its adequacy. Tia takes the money, and Antoinette calls her a
“cheating nigger.” Tia replies by mocking Antoinette’s poverty, saying “old time white people
nothing but white nigger now.” When Antoinette looks away, Tia leaves with her money as well
as her clothes, forcing Antoinette to walk home in Tia’s dirty dress. When Antoinette arrives
home, her mother has visitors, relatives of Mr. Luttrell who have come to claim his estate. These
visitors laugh at Antoinette’s dirty clothes, causing her to run away
and Annette and Christophine to argue about the state of Antoinette’s wardrobe. Annette insists
that Antoinette must have another dress for Christophine to put her in, and Christophine tells her
angrily that she does not, that it is shameful and caused by neglect, “She run wild, she grow up
worthless. And nobody care.” Christophine dresses Antoinette in an old dress that is too small
for her, while bitterly criticizing the new Luttrell relatives for their treatment of Antoinette and
their attitude of ownership in the area. She tells Antoinette that though there is no more slavery,
the new white people in power still have the law on their side and are worse than the old. The
rest of the night, Annette does not look at or speak to Antoinette, and Antoinette is sure that her
mother is ashamed of her. Antoinette has a nightmare that night, that she is walking through a
strange forest with someone who hates her, out of sight. She screams and wakes up, to find her
mother there. Annette chastises her for waking up her brother, Pierre. Antoinette goes back to
sleep watching the light in Pierre’s window. The next day, Annette has “yards of muslin” and
ribbon purchased to make new dresses for herself and Antoinette. Antoinette suspects that her
mother has sold the remainder of her jewelry to make these purchases. Her mother also begins to
spend whole days at parties given by the new Luttrell’s, and Antoinette responds by roaming the
Coulibri estate, seeking solace in nature, which she proclaims, even when being bitten by ants or
cut by sharp grasses, to be “Better, better than people.” Annette remarries, to Mr. Mason, an
Englishman. Antoinette, serving as a bridesmaid, regards the English guests at the wedding with
hatred, because she remembers overhearing many of them gossiping about her and her family
while visiting Coulibri: they gossiped about Mr. Mason’s predatory financial motivations for
being in Jamaica, about Antoinette’s father, Old Cosway, whom they called an alcoholic and
philanderer with many illegitimate children, and claim also that Annette “encouraged” him. They
also gossip about Christophine and her practice of obeah. After the wedding, Antoinette and her
brother are sent to stay with their Aunt Cora, a wealthy widow, while Coulibri is renovated and
restored with Mr. Mason’s money. When the family returns to Coulibri, Antoinette finds that
much more than its appearance has changed. The new black servants brought by Mr.
Mason gossip about Christophine and obeah, instilling a new fear of Christophine in Antoinette.
Antoinette says that though no one has ever spoken to her directly about obeah, she knows what
she would find if she looked around in Christophine’s things. One day, she sees or imagines
seeing “a dead man’s dried hand” and a bleeding chicken in Christophine’s room. Annette is also
affected by the new gossip, particularly the constant and increasingly hateful commentary among
the surrounding community of ex-slaves about the new wealth brought to Coulibri by Mr.
Mason. A year into their marriage, Annette feels so threatened by their black neighbors that she
tries to convince Mr. Mason to move the family away from Coulibri, but he laughs off the idea,
saying that the ex-slaves are too lazy to be dangerous. Annette cautions him, saying that he
misunderstands and underestimates black people, that they are “more alive” than he is, and
accuses him of failing to recognize their capacity for both good and bad. Mr. Mason agrees that
he does not understand, but does not agree to leave Coulibri, though Annette continues to insist
that they must. One evening, on their way back to Coulibri estate from an outing, the family
notices that the huts of their black neighbors are abandoned. Mr. Mason thinks they must be at a
dance or a wedding, but Antoinette and the rest of the family are uneasy, saying that there are
never weddings in the community, and that they would be able to hear drums if there was a
dance. This sparks another argument about leaving Coulibri. At dinner, Mr. Mason speaks of
importing workers from the East Indies, and is warned by Aunt Cora not to speak about this in
front of the black employees whom he’d be replacing. Mr. Mason again expresses his belief that
black people are too childlike to be a real threat. On her way to bed, Antoinette goes into Pierre’s
room to say goodnight, and finds him already asleep. As she watches him sleep, she thinks to
herself that Mr. Mason has promised to bring Pierre to England to be cured, and wonders what
that might mean. She concludes that it would mean making Pierre “exactly like other people,”
and questions whether this would be a good thing. She leaves his room and goes to sleep in a
state of unease, sure she has heard whispering among the bamboo outside Pierre’s window.
Antoinette is awoken in the middle of the night by her mother, who tells her to dress quickly and
come downstairs. Antoinette is struck by the disheveled state of her mother’s hair. When she gets
downstairs, Antoinette sees that all of the adults are up, and many of the servants are missing.
There is an angry mob outside. Mr. Mason attempts to address the mob, still not believing that
they are there to hurt the family, and is greeted with rocks thrown at him. Annette worries about
whether to wake the still sleeping Pierre. Even as Mr. Mason tries to insist to the family, yet
again, that the crowd is harmless, the servant Mannie notices smoke coming from under
Antoinette’s bedroom door-- the mob has set fire to the house. As Aunt
Cora embraces Antoinette and tells her not to worry, that she is “quite safe,’’ Annette rushes
to Pierre’s bedroom to save him, carries him out in her arms. He is badly burned, and she herself
is singed. The servant who was supposed to be caring for Pierre had left the house to join the
mob. As Aunt Cora tears her own petticoat into strips to bandage Pierre, Annette alternates
between whispering in shock and screaming angrily at Mr. Mason for not taking her warnings
seriously. The loyal remaining servants, under Aunt Cora’s instruction, help the family out of the
house and toward their carriage. As a hysterical Annette is being lead to the carriage, she
struggles ferociously to get back into the house to retrieve her parrot, Coco. The mob laughs and
hurls insults at the family, becoming more and more worked up. Antoinette notices that many of
the people in the mob are carrying weapons. The crowd suddenly goes quiet as Coco the parrot
emerges from an upper window of the house, screeching, his wings on fire. Antoinette begins to
cry, remembering that it is considered very bad luck to kill a parrot or even to watch a parrot die.
The members of the mob seem to remember this as well, for they begin to flee. As the family
and Christophine reach their carriage, a man in the crowd confronts them, but Aunt
Cora threatens him calmly with hellfire and eternal damnation, and he falls back.
Antoinette turns before entering the carriage and sees women in the crowd who are crying,
insisting they only came to see what had happened. As she watches the house and
the gardens burn, Antoinette mourns the loss of the beautiful trees and flowers. She sees her
former friend Tia in the crowd, and runs to her because she sees Tia, in that moment, as the only
remaining token of the life she had known. Antoinette think that if she can stay with Tia she will
not have to leave her home, that they will be able to go back to the time that they played together
as equals. Before she reaches Tia, though, Tia throws a jagged rock at her, hitting Antoinette in
the head. The two look at each other and both weep as Antoinette bleeds, and Antoinette sees
herself in Tia, “Like in a looking-glass.” Antoinette wakes up with Aunt Cora by her bedside, at
Aunt Cora’s home in Spanish Town. The first thing she notices is that her hair has been cut off,
and she asks Aunt Cora about it. She learns that she has been very ill for six weeks, which is why
her hair had to be cut. Aunt Cora also tells her that Pierre is dead, and that her mother is in the
country, recovering. Antoinette remembers hearing, during her fevers, her mother raving with
grief and alternately echoing the parrot Coco’s signature phrase, “Qui est la?” and screaming
accusations and threats at Mr. Mason. Antoinette does not mention her awareness of the truth
to Aunt Cora, who promises her that she is safe and sings to her to try to get her to go to sleep.
Antoinette interrupts her and asks her to sing a song entitled, “Before I was set free.” Antoinette
only remembers one lyric before falling asleep, “The sorrow that my heart feels for.” One
day, Antoinette is taken to visit her mother at the house where Annette is recuperating.
Antoinette insists that Christophine go with her, and no one else. When they arrive, Antoinette
runs as fast as she can from the carriage to the house in her excitement to see her mother. At first,
Antoinette does not recognize her mother, and only sees that there is a black man, a black
woman, and a white woman in the room. She cannot see her mother’s face, but soon recognizes
her by her damaged hair. They embrace, and Antoinette struggles to express to her mother that,
though Pierre is dead, she is here for her. In response, Annette flings Antoinette away from her
and loudly refuses her. Christophine takes Antoinette back to her aunt’s house, and they do not
speak of what happened. After a time of living and getting well at Aunt Cora’s
house, Antoinette is sent to the local convent school. On the way to school on her first day, she is
bullied by two children, one black and one mixed race. The girl mocks her, saying, “Look the
crazy girl, you crazy like your mother,” and goes on to harass her by saying that her mother had
tried to kill Mr. Mason, had tried to kill Antoinette as well, and that they both have eyes “like
zombie.” The boy threatens repeatedly that he will, some day soon, catch her alone, implying
physical violence. They begin to push her around, but when a boy named Sandi comes over to
them, the bullies run away. Sandi is a relation of Antoinette’s through one of her father’s affairs,
ands he refers to him as her cousin. He promises to make sure the other children don’t bother her
again. Antoinette is crying and dirty when she arrives at the convent. The nuns clean her up and
offer her milk to sooth her, but she chokes on it. When one of the nuns tells Antoinette to look at
her, that Antoinette will not be afraid of her, she takes in the nun’s clean and pleasant appearance
and begins to calm down. The nun tells her that she will not have to walk to school alone
anymore, and then introduces her to Louise de Plana, a fellow student. Louise connects with
Antoinette by joking with her about the nuns, and as they walk through the convent Antoinette is
comforted by Louise’s beauty as well as by the trees and flowers in the convent’s gardens. At the
convent, in a hot and sticky classroom, Antoinette and her classmates practice needlework while
listening to the nuns read from a book about the lives of the saints. Antoinette notices that all of
the saints they hear about are beautiful and wealthy, “loved by rich and handsome young men.”
When it is claimed during one of these lessons that a rose belonging to one of these saints has
never died, and still exists, Antoinette privately questions this, thinking, “Oh but where?
Where?” The nuns place high emphasis on appearance, as well as chastity and deportment.
Though there are no mirrors at the convent, Antoinette once sees a young nun admiring her own
appearance, in a cask of water. Louise de Plana and her sisters are repeatedly held up by the nuns
as examples of impeccable manners, hygiene, and beauty. Antoinette greatly admires them and
envies one of the sisters’ hair, asks her how to style hers to look the same. Antoinette admires
Louise in particular. When listening to the nuns read about the saints and their European origins,
Antoinette constructs an image in her mind of France that is “a lady with black hair wearing a
white dress,” and says that this is because Louise, who was born in France, has black curly hair,
and her mother, who is also of French descent, liked to wear white dresses. Antoinette prays for
her mother as if she is dead, though she is still living, and says to herself that she must forget her.
The rest of Antoinette’s family drifts from her-- Christophine goes away to live with her son,
and Mr. Mason visits only rarely. Eventually, Aunt Cora travels back to England for her health,
and Antoinette moves into the convent full-time. Antoinette thinks of the convent as a refuge,
finding its structure and routine comforting. She learns and recites her prayers by rote, but
wonders about the low premium placed on happiness in their teachings-- “But what about
happiness, I thought at first, is there no happiness? Oh happiness of course, happiness, well.”
Antoinette marvels at the clear-cut contrasts in convent life, between light and dark, Heaven and
Hell. She learns from one of the nuns that a feature of Heaven is that all its inhabitants are
transcendently beautiful, and prays to be dead so that she might experience this Heaven. She then
remembers that this, like so many other thoughts, is considered a mortal sin, and gradually stops
praying. This makes her feel happier and more free, but less safe. After living in the convent for
eighteen months, Antoinette is paid a visit by Mr. Mason. He brings her a dress, and tells her that
he is taking her to live with him and Aunt Cora, who has returned from England. Antoinette
greets this information with dismay. He asks her if she has learned to dance, and she replies that
she has not. Mr. Mason tells her that he has invited friends from England to come and stay with
them, that one in particular is coming to see her. Antoinette immediately feels a suffocating
sensation at her stepfather’s mention of a suitor, but refuses to mention it because, she feels,
again, that if she doesn’t speak of it might not be true. She notes that the nuns and the other girls
know why she is leaving, and she resents their cheerfulness, envies them for their continued
safety at the convent. The night before she is to leave the convent for good, Antoinette has her
nightmare for a second time, now relayed in much more detail. In it, she is being lead through a
forest of unfamiliar trees wearing a beautiful white dress. She does not know the man leading
her, but she sees that he hates her and begins to cry. Nevertheless, she makes no effort to save
herself, and in fact knows that if anyone were to try to save her, she would refuse. The stranger
leads her up a flight of steps and the dream ends. Antoinette wakes and shares her dream
with Sister Marie Augustine, telling her that she has dreamt she was in Hell. The nun tells her to
forget the dream, because it is evil, and gives her chocolate to drink. The chocolate
reminds Antoinette of drinking chocolate after her mother’s funeral, which had taken place more
than a year before. This is Antoinette’s first mention of her mother’s death. She thinks about the
fact that no one told her how her mother died, and she never asked. She remembers that she tried
to pray at the funeral, but the words gave her no solace. She does not share any of this with Sister
Marie Augustine, but merely asks her tearfully why terrible things happen in the world. The nun
tells her sadly not to concern herself with such a question, because “We do not know why the
devil must have his little day. Not yet,” and puts her back to bed to wait for her stepfather’s
arrival.